Wo­man as­saults hubby, smashes his glasses

A 45-YEAR-OLD wo­man from Em­gan­wini sub­urb in Bu­l­awayo has been ar­raigned for as­sault­ing her 50-year-old hus­band and smash­ing his spec­ta­cles.

The man al­legedly re­tal­i­ated by break­ing her spec­ta­cles as well. The cou­ple seemed to strug­gle to see ob­jects as they ap­peared in court yes­ter­day.

Sabelo Sibanda ap­peared be­fore Western Com­mon­age mag­is­trate Ms Tancy Dube fac­ing two counts of as­sault and ma­li­cious da­m­age to prop­erty. She pleaded guilty and was re­manded to to­day for sen­tence.

Prose­cut­ing, Ms Mar­garet Takawira said on Septem­ber 28, Sibanda and her hus­band had a mis­un­der­stand­ing that de­gen­er­ated into a fist fight.

“On Septem­ber 28 in Em­gan­wini sub­urb, the ac­cused per­son and the com­plainant had a mis­un­der­stand­ing over in­fi­delity is­sues. The mis­un­der­stand­ing re­sulted in the ac­cused per­son as­sault­ing the com­plainant twice on the mouth with fists,” she said.

The com­plainant sus­tained mi­nor in­juries as a re­sult of the at­tack and did not seek med­i­cal at­ten­tion. Ms Takawira said the ac­cused also took Mr Sibanda’s spec­ta­cles from his face and smashed them.

“She took the pre­scribed glasses and smashed them,” she said. Pre­scrip­tion glasses range be­tween $250 and $900. In her de­fence, Sibanda said she hit her hus­band in self de­fence.

“I did not as­sault him Your Wor­ship, we were in the mid­dle of a fight.

“He took my glasses first and then I also grabbed his and threw them to the ground. I was just retaliating.”

Mag­is­trate Dube rub­bished her de­fence and asked her if she was con­fus­ing spec­ta­cles with a ball.

“Pre­scrip­tion glasses are not a ball that you can kick and toss around, why did you throw them away? Spec­ta­cles are very frag­ile.

“Since you also use them, you must know how del­i­cate they are, you can­not just be reck­less with glasses,” said the mag­is­trate.

Sibanda pleaded with the mag­is­trate to be re­manded out of cus­tody as she said prison con­di­tions are un­bear­able since she had a knee prob­lem. But Mag­is­trate Dube shot down her re­quest. “That is what you get for com­mit­ting a crime. Crim­i­nals don’t de­serve com­fort; there are no so­fas in prison. If you want a com­fort­able life, stay away from crime. That is the prob­lem of com­mit­ting a crime, deal with it,” said the mag­is­trate — @andile-tshuma.